The concern raised at the African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa conference and exhibition held in South Africa.

South Africa is a water scarce country, yet expenditure on research and development for water security does not reflect this picture.

Dr Hlamulo Makelane, research fellow at the Nelson Mandela University, said funding for water research declined over the last five years, which she said was highly problematic.

“Funding for research and development declined by 45 percent in the last five years. This is scary because as we speak the country (South Africa) has a water road map and I hope we will be putting up more money,” she said.

According to her, research and development have a direct impact on water resource management and promotes training and capacity building in the sector.

“It can lead to creative solutions and help influence how people and society behave,” Makelane said.

Makelane also stressed the need for intersectoral funding between government and the private sector for more progress towards water security.

Makelane reminded delegates South Africa is a water scarce country thus needs to improve demand management, storage and protect water sources more effectively.

“This all starts with investing in research because this is how we will know how to plan and decide what dams and reservoirs to build where,” she added.

There are reportedly more than 2 billion people worldwide in countries facing severe water constraints.

Africa is no exception.

Gift Sageme, Chief Executive Officer of Malawi’s Central Region Water Board, also underscored the importance of water security being integral to all facets of society.

He expressed surprise that governments tend to put the water sector behind other sectors like energy, roads, agriculture and health.

“What they (governments) don’t realise, however, is that without water no sector can survive,” Sageme said.

from DION HENRICK in Cape TownCape Town BureauCAPE TOWN, (CAJ News) – A DEEPLY culture of non-payment, mistrust and general negative public perceptions have been identified as some factors hindering companies in the sector despite utilities adopting technology to improve customer service and drive revenue.

Among companies afflicted by these issues include Eskom, the South African electricity utility.

This is despite the company being at the forefront of technological innovation compared to the rest of the continent.

This was the prevailing sentiment at the African Utility Week and POWERGEN Africa conference and exhibition in Cape Town.

Dileep John, Eskom programme lead on Advanced Analytics, acknowledged that how customers interact with the utility needed to change significantly.

“It is about how you interact with your customer and their information needs. So, if the customer interacts with you on Twitter, you must be able to respond on Twitter,” John said.

He however added that not all facets of smart energy mechanisms necessarily got automatic consumer buy-in.

John referred to the prepaid electricity meters in Soweto that was met with significant community resistance.

He also acknowledged there was a public perception crisis with Eskom and general mistrust.

These perceptions are driven by mostly load shedding but there is also an existing and well entrenched culture of non-payment that the utility is wrestling, he explained.

“So, we need to get the message across that without this revenue we cannot fund the supply, we cannot fund customer service delivery and any network improvements in the future. It is like a vicious cycle,” the Eskom official said.

John said Eskom was driving a behaviour change campaign in resistant communities but was “caught between a rock and a hard place” especially with resistance to smart metering.

Slawomir Klimowicz, industry value advisor for SAP Middle East and North Africa, said customers wanted a better experience of utilities and not just the commodity like water or power.

“I would say the future is one where there is contact with customers – where customers have access to consumption data, to services and get advisories from utility companies. This future comes with mobile applications and social media and a younger generation of consumers,” Klimowicz said.

One of the most brilliant South African young scientists to represent the country at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Phoenix, Arizona, United StatesKeira van Niekerk poses for a photo.

by SAVIOUS KWINIKAJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – SEVEN of South Africa’s finest young scientists will represent the country at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in the United States.

They will showcase their brilliance at the event scheduled for Phoenix, Arizona from May 12 to 16.

The learners are top achievers who were selected following last October’s Eskom Expo for Young Scientists International Science Fair (ISF).

The girl-dominated group was selected for the fair in Phoenix after demonstrating an advanced and in-depth understanding of their research fields, producing research of an international level and addressing contemporary issues as they experienced them in their own unique contexts.

Projects by learners selected to take part in the competition, range from research into an alternative way to create and transfer electricity to increasing the overall energy efficiency of solar panels.

Parthy Chetty, Eskom Expo Executive Director, said the promising young scientists were going to enter the international stage of the largest science fair in the world, thereby opening up new adventures and creating new lifelong memories and friends from across the world.

“As ambassadors of South Africa, they are looking forward to this new chapter in their lives,” Chetty said.

The scientists will compete alongside more than 1 800 learners from more than 75 countries for over R57 million (US3,9 million) in prizes, including bursaries and high-end laptops.

by SAVIOUS KWINIKA
THE level of corruption and chaos at the Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA), has left me shocked and in disbelief.

This follows my recent visit to Harare where I have a home.

Unsuspecting private companies, entrepreneurs and residents are at the mercy of the power utility, which is forcing them to pay to have their enterprises and residence connected.

Instead of freely connecting businesses and residences, ZETDC demands that residents and company owners buy poles and electric power lines.

Where has it ever happened that a supplier of goods and services charge the product before they are delivered? What kind of business ethics are these?

My tears nearly flowed cheeks when I saw unemployed parents being forced to pay poles for ZETDC in order to have the houses or stands in the capital city connected.

Apart from being made to buy poles for electricity lines, the unsuspecting new business owners and residents were also made to pay huge money for cables and meter boxes.

Without paying for these, there is no connection.

I have traveled across all Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states, and have never witnessed such rot as the one at ZESA/ZETDC.

Some of these services charged by the Zimbabwe power utility are done freely across SADC countries because they always recoup their investment through monthly billing of power being consumed by users.

If one may ask, where is the monthly revenue generated from power bills by ZESA go? Those businesses and residents already connected pay their bills and tariffs have been doubled.

Where does the money go?

This is nonsense! This automatically disqualifies Zimbabwe as a destination that is ready and open for business

As business owners and residents, we pay taxes to the government. We pay for water connection, pay for poles, buy electricity cables, buy metered boxes and now pay ‘motivating’ bonuses to state-owned company ZETDC to give us electricity.

Sometimes as Diasporans we are left with no answers as to whether our leaders know what is happening in state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Surely, if President Emmerson Mnangagwa wants to retain power in 2023, he must start acting now against these government entities coming with controversial policies that hinder his “Zimbabwe is open for business” mantra.

This rot at ZETDC must forthwith come to an end. No struggling entrepreneurs or residents should be taken advantage of by their own government.

Until some of these ANTI-STATE policies are dealt with, Zimbabwe will struggle to entice investors into the country.

These criminals at ZETDC must be arrested and replaced by right professionals with the interest of making Zimbabwe a middle-income economy by 2030.

Forget the corruptly and glaring acquisitions of residential and commercial land by land barons, mainly ZANU-PF.

by SAVIOUS KWINIKA JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – MTN South Africa spent more than R400 million ($27.7 million) last year on investments in battery backup systems and generators.

Despite the spend, its mobile sites continue to face significant threats, due to Eskom’s ongoing stage three and stage four load shedding.

Excluding the amount spent on new batteries for new cell phone sites, MTN spent around R300 million in 2018 on batteries for existing sites.

In addition to the batteries, MTN has 1 800 generators currently in use and the company spent more than R120 million in diesel fuel in 2018, to power these generators.

The majority of MTN’s sites have been equipped with battery backup systems to ensure there is enough power on site to run the systems for several hours when local power goes down.

However, the frequency of stage three and four load shedding is resulting in batteries not having enough time to recharge.

“These batteries generally have a capacity of six to 12 hours, depending on the site category and require 12 to 18 hours to recharge, which in stage three and four load shedding is simply not happening,” explained Jacqui O’Sullivan, Executive: Corporate Affairs, MTN SA.

Another significant additional cost of the load shedding is the extra on-site security that is needed to protect the batteries, generators and general site equipment from thieves and vandals.

O’Sullivan disclosed the company had to spend in the region of R11 million to replace batteries at 100 sites in Gauteng Province.

“More broadly, we have had to spend R285 million on additional infrastructure to fix what was broken during the theft.”

MTN has had to roll-out an extensive security programme focusing on visibility, detection and reaction to sites and this is being further boosted in the face of the current outages.

Additional security is also required where mobile generators are deployed to protect those vital pieces of equipment.

The company stated the extent of the outages has placed a significant strain on its overall network resources.

Teams have had to be reassigned from growth projects to emergency management of sites, due to the load shedding.

The constant outages are also having a direct impact on the performance of the batteries. If stage four outages continue, the battery’s integrity is compromised because of the insufficient time to recharge and due to the excessive drain, on its power.

“Teams of technicians are being redeployed as and where required and additional shifts are being worked to restore and maintain connectivity, as quickly as possible, for our customers,” O’Sullivan concluded.

“That means we will spend R243 billion more than we earn,” Mboweni said.

“Put another way, we are borrowing about R1,2 billion a day, assuming that we don’t borrow money on the weekend.”

Mboweni said in this coming year, interest expenditures would be R209,4 billion.

The expenditure and tax adjustments are designed to largely counteract the additional allocation for Eskom and the revenue shortfall.

As a result, gross national debt will still stabilise at about 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2023/24, in line with Mboweni’s October forecast.

A bailout of power utility Eskom was among the highlights of the budget.

Mboweni disclosed the government was setting aside R23 billion a year to financially support Eskom during its “reconfiguration.”

“I want to make it clear: the national government is not taking on Eskom’s debt. Eskom took on the debt. It must ultimately repay it,” Mboweni said.

The opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) denounced the budget as “a budget speech of bailouts not for the people of South Africa.”

“Mboweni’s maiden speech reveals a major increase in the gap between revenue and expenditure that has been caused primarily by the Eskom financial crisis,” said Alf Lees, DA Shadow Minister of Finance.

by SAVIOUS KWINIKAJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THERE are differences within South Africa’s tripartite alliance following the announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa of plans to privatise state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

Despite some of these parastatals plagued by corruption and
under-performance, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), opposed the privatisation plans arguing this would result in job losses.

COSATU was reacting to Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday, during which the president announced the unbundling of power utility Eskom into three divisions comprising Generation, Transmission and Distribution.

“It is clear that the only solution by the government is to punish the
real victims of corruption in the SOE’s, the workers,” COSATU spokesman, Sizwe Pamla told CAJ News Africa.

“We want to make it very clear that we will oppose any privatisation of strategic assets like Eskom. We have a clear and unambiguous position on the issue of privatisation of state assets,” Pamla added.

He said the federation would rather encourage “engagement” with regard to the restructuring of Eskom.

“There is no just-transition that can be rushed. We will flatly reject any solution or policy that will be unilaterally imposed and that will bring more misery to the already struggling workers,” Pamla said.

COSATU is a member of the tripartite alliance alongside the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and South African Communist Party (SACP).

Delivering the annual SONA, Ramaphosa, said the unbundling of Eskom would bring credibility to the turnaround and to position South Africa’s power sector for the future.

The president insisted this would isolate costs to each entity and enable Eskom raise funding easily from the markets.

“It is imperative that we undertake these measures without delay to
stabilise Eskom’s finances, ensure security of electricity supply and
establish the basis for long-term sustainability,” Ramaphosa said.

Eskom has a total debt burden of R420 billion.

Rand Merchant Bank (RMB) stated Ramaphosa offered stern words of warning if the failing operational and financial health of the utility was left unchecked.

“The government is acutely aware that Eskom’s instability poses a risk to the country and decisive actions cannot be delayed,” the firm stated.

South Africa will have to wait until the Budget Speech on February 20 for details around Eskom but the government will support the company’s balance sheet.

“It is to be done without burdening the fiscus with unmanageable debt, while considering both the impact on the sovereign rating to the rights and obligations of funders,” RMB commented.

from TRACEY IRVING in Washington, USAWASHINGTON, (CAJ News) – A KEY player from Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign is set to head the World Bank.

Mr Trump has selected US treasury official David Malpass for the role after the surprise resignation last month of bank president Jim Jong Kim.

As largest shareholder and the main funder, Washington’s choice for the job gets the nod, though in theory it’s up to the bank’s board.

The Korean-born Dr Kim was appointed by Barack Obama in 2012 and quickly imposed a ban on lending for projects using coal. In South Africa this decision hit the state-owned Eskom power monopoly which had to source funding elsewhere for its new plants, as did Botswana, India, China, Poland, Kenya, Tanzania and the Philippines.

Last year, Dr Kim extended the rule to oil and gas, with implications for Nigeria, Angola, Mozambique and the Middle East.

Mr Malpass, who describes himself as a “free-market economist”, agrees with Trump that the US picks up too much of the bill for running the United Nations, NATO, and other institutions.

Once in charge, he would have the power to reign in a World Bank he claims has built up “mountains of debt without solving problems”.

Mr Malpass told a recent conference in Washington the bank had, “created an environment where their own growth ends up being as important as their clients’ growth.”

The bank’s biggest borrower is China, but Malpass said it made no sense lending to the world’s second-largest economy.

At the White House, press chief Sarah Sanders said Malpass would be, “a great choice,” describing him as “highly respected and a strong member of the team”.

Established in 1944, the bank’s mission was to rebuild Europe in wake of World War ll. The first loan went to France.

But this changed in the 1970s with more money to Asia, Africa and South America.

Lifting the ban on fossil fuel may be good news for Africa and especially India where power plants are undergoing the world’s largest conversion to clean coal, but if Malpass shrinks the overall size of the bank, it could make loans more difficult.

In Washington, Dr Sylvanus Ayeni is a retired neurosurgeon who has spent the past two decades travelling Africa and the US, lecturing on development. Born in Nigeria, he said the World Bank needed to focus on electricity, but warned against free money.

“Africans also have a right to electricity. Not a solar lamp hanging in a hut, but industrial power that can bring jobs and factories. The kind we enjoy in the USA.”

Aid, he said, was not the answer. “Since 1960, Washington alone has donated more than a trillion dollars to Africa with little result. Some hit the mark, much of it was wasted, and billions have been stolen.

“We need projects with proper goals and timelines that can run at a profit large enough to pay back a loan. And we need conditions attached to make sure the money benefits people on the ground instead of wealthy and corrupt politicians who have left Africa as the world’s poorest continent while growing rich in the process.”

In 2017, Dr Ayeni’s book “Rescue Thyself” sent waves through global agencies when he exposed the level of waste and theft linked to aid and loans in Africa.

He has also called for change at the World Bank.

“The US, Europe and China used coal, oil and gas to build economies that let them lead the world. Surely Africa has a right to the same, but doing it cleanly.” he said.

On 1 February Dr Kim handed authority to acting president Kristalina Georgieva of Bulgaria, who also serves as CEO of the bank.

If approved by the board, Mr Malpass will assume control before Easter.

by AKANI CHAUKEJOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – EXPERTS have forecast innovation and technology to play increasingly valuable roles in boosting performance and sustainable efficiency in mines throughout Africa.

Marc Ramsay, an industry executive, said of all the trends impacting the mining industry currently, none was likely to be as critical as
digitalisation for the over-arching impact it is beginning to have on
every aspect of the industry operation, while also offering significant
potential for improving operational efficiency.

He is the Vice President of the Anglophone Africa Mining, Metals and Minerals (MMM) Industry Business Unit at Schneider Electric South.

The company, which has been partnering with mining companies for more than four decades, has the MMM division, a digital technology platform aimed at impacting productivity in the sector.

“We are continuing to develop solutions from our areas of expertise that include buildings, industry and infrastructure, and utilities, to
contribute to enabling mining companies achieve new levels of efficiency and productivity,” Ramsay said.

It features open and inter-operable architecture and leverages the latest in digital technologies – including cyber security, analytics, cloud, and mobility – delivering real-time control and operational efficiency. Such initiatives are borne out by Deloitte’s “Tracking the Trends 2019 in the Mining Sector.”

According to the report, the mining industry appears poised for greater growth than it has seen in a decade but today’s market realities are different than those of the past.

Mining companies now need to determine how to operate in a market characterized by constant disruption, volatility, rising stakeholder demands, a widening talent gap, dwindling access to key inputs such as energy and water, Deloitte stated.

The firm said solving this value conundrum mandated them to push the boundaries on their digital transformation.

“It also requires them to make technology a strategic priority by
acknowledging its role as an enabler across every facet of their
business,” Deloitte added.

from ANDRZEJ KOWALCYK in Katowice, Poland KATOWICE, (CAJ News) – It was never going to be easy holding a United Nations climate-change meeting in a country that gets 80 per cent of its energy from

Poland’s main source of energy – coal

coal and is planning more of the same.

The 24th Conference of Parties (COP24) to the Paris Accord on Climate Change opened in the southern Polish city of Katowice on Monday with confusion from the start.

A map of pavilions showed one for the United States, but when visitors went to the spot it was empty. The US negotiating team had no idea why their country was even listed among the displays. President Trump is in the process of withdrawing from the Accord.

Nigeria, Benin and Congo Brazzaville did have stands, but for much of the time there were no staff to run them.

French leader Emmanuel Macron was due here, but couldn’t leave Paris because of violent protest against his plan to increase a tax on fossil fuels. On Wednesday he agreed to scrap the hike, but a spokesman for the demonstrators said it was, “too little too late,” and the riots look set to continue.

The aim of COP24 is to set goals by which the almost 200 nations will reduce pollution in order to halt a rise in temperature across the planet. Chief among these, according to the UN, is a limit on oil, gas and especially coal.

But to the horror of green protestors, the president of Poland arrived to sign a “solidarity accord” with miners, confirming there would be no end to Polish coal any time soon.

Most African countries have a presence here, some with teams larger than wealthy nations.

John Owusu is a retired engineer originally from Ghana, but for 50 years he has worked across all regions of Africa.

“There’s a crisis of energy on our continent,” he said “More than 600 million people have no electricity but we have African countries with huge delegations, all staying in top hotels, and for what?”

He said a key to saving the environment was to stop the loss of forest across Asia and Africa.

“Where people have no other way to cook or heat their homes, they will use firewood,” he said. “We need electricity for Africa and we need it now. That’s where the money should be spent, not on flying to summits.”

The main US team will arrive on Monday to promote an alliance between countries who could share technology on how to use coal without putting off harmful emissions.

Australia, the US, India and South Africa are considered world leaders in the science.

Indian environment minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, a former ear, nose and throat surgeon said his work as a doctor left him “in no doubt” on the need for clean air.

But he also defended his country’s coal program, saying ultra-supercritical systems had changed the way it was used, reducing emissions to levels that allowed India to meet its obligations under the Paris deal.

And, he said, India “stands ready to share clean technology of all kinds,” with the world. “This is a battle for the planet, not for any one country,” he said.

South Africa, currently suffering prolonged power cuts, has a pavilion at COP 24 and minister Derek Hanekom is due to deliver an address on Monday. South Africa gets most of its energy from coal.

The World Bank announced it would spend $200bn over the next five years to help countries limit climate change though it will not fund projects using fossil fuel, a policy opposed by the US which is the banks largest donor.

But there was a light moment for the Zimbabwe delegation when they passed by the Polish stand to find a display marked, “Sadza Soap.”

In Zimbabwe’s Shona language, sadza is a stiff maize-meal porridge and the national dish. In Polish, it means soot or powdered coal.

The soap was displayed in glass cases surrounded by Polish coal.

Countries in the region are using oil, coal and nuclear power to lessen their dependence on Russian gas in wake of Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and eastern Ukraine.

With winter temperatures falling below -20ºC, there is a fear President Vladimir Putin could freeze his neighbours into submission, simply by turning off the gas.

COP 24 will wrap up next week, but John Owusu said it reminded him of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries or OPEC.

“OPEC ministers come together and pledge to reduce output in order to maintain a high price of oil. Then they go home and pump as much as they like.

“Sadly it’s the same thing here. Everyone wants cheap electricity and they’ll make it with whatever works best.”

He said at least the Polish president had been honest. “Wind and solar are growing, but coal will continue whether we like it or not.”